Disclosed is a portable electronic device comprising: a sensor; and a control unit controlling the sensor so as to obtain movement information of the portable electronic device in order to detect a movement of at least a part of a user's arm, determining whether the user is in a driving state on the basis of the movement information, automatically switching into a driving mode on the basis of the determination, and activating at least one function relating to driving among the functions of the portable electronic device on the basis of the switching into the driving mode.

A windshield includes a windshield body and an ambient display coupled to the windshield body. The ambient display includes a light guide plate and a light source optically coupled to the light source. Aside from the light source, the ambient display includes a transparent phosphor film and an optic array. The transparent phosphor film includes at least one phosphor. The optic array includes a plurality of lenses and is disposed between the light guide plate and the transparent phosphor film. The light guide plate is positioned relative to the optic array such that light emitted from the light source is directed toward the optic array. The chromaticity and luminance of the light emitted by the transparent phosphor film can be adjusted based on the electrical current received by the light source.

A drive assist apparatus, including a lane-keeping assist apparatus configured to apply an auxiliary steering torque to a steering mechanism mounted on a vehicle so that the vehicle runs at a predetermined position between lane lines, an operating member configured to be operated by an operator of the vehicle to output an activation signal for activating the lane-keeping assist apparatus, a determining unit configured to determine whether operation of the lane-keeping assist apparatus is necessary, and an outputting unit configured to output at least one of a notify signal for prompting the operator to operate the operating member and the activation signal, when the operating member is inoperative and it is determined that operation of the lane-keeping assist apparatus is necessary by the determining unit.

A method for recognizing a state of tiredness and/or sleep of a vehicle driver. The method includes reading in a first and second eye opening signal, the first signal representing a degree of eye opening and/or a signal derived therefrom of the left eye of the driver of the vehicle and the second signal representing a degree of eye opening and/or a signal derived therefrom of the right eye of the driver of the vehicle. The method also includes recognizing a validity of the first and/or second signal to recognize the first signal as valid if the first signal corresponds to a first criterion and/or to recognize the second signal as valid if the second eye signal corresponds to a second criterion, and determining the state of tiredness and/or sleep of the driver of the vehicle using the first signal recognized as valid and/or the second signal recognized as valid.

The driver state monitoring device monitoring the state or the driver is provided with a driver monitor camera capturing an image or the driver, an abnormality diagnosis part diagnosing a state of the driver or the driver state monitoring device based on an image sent from the driver monitor camera, and a warning part warning the driver of an abnormality when it is judged by the abnormality diagnosis part that an abnormality has occurred in the driver or the driver detection device. The abnormality diagnosis part is configured to judge that an abnormality has occurred in the driver or the driver state monitoring device, when an amount of change in a predetermined time of at least part of the image sent from the driver monitor camera is equal to or less than a predetermined amount of change.

Provided are an apparatus and method for monitoring driver's concentrativeness capable of monitoring whether a driver is concentratedly obtaining major information by tracing a driver's sight while a vehicle is running, in order to provide alarm to the driver when driver's concentrativeness is dropped at a time when the major information is changed while the vehicle is running.

A vehicle is adapted for movement along a roadway. A cabin of the vehicle is adapted for surrounding and supporting an occupant with movement of the vehicle. Systems of the vehicle control an environment within the cabin.

Disclosed herein is an information notification device for a vehicle. The information notification device for a vehicle is a vehicle-mounted safety product, and enables shapes and characters or the like, adapted to indicate a direction, to be displayed in various manners by opening the trunk of a vehicle when a breakdown or accident of the vehicle has occurred, and thus the driver of the following vehicle can be rapidly and accurately notified of the emergency situation and a traffic lane to and along which the following vehicle needs to switch its lane and to travel can be indicated by a directional sign, thereby enabling the driver of the following vehicle to more safely and rapidly deal with the emergency situation.

An apparatus for determining a concentration of a driver includes: a region-of-interest definition processor configured to define a region-of-interest based on traffic-related information on front image information of a vehicle running; a driver eye-gaze detection processor configured to detect a plurality of eye-gaze points from driver image information of a driver in accordance with an eye-gaze movement of the driver; a driver concentration information calculation processor configured to calculate concentration information of each of the eye-gaze points; an image coordinate system processor configured to convert the region-of-interest to an image coordinate system and convert positions of the eye-gaze points to the image coordinate system; and a concentration determination processor configured to determine a concentration of the driver on the image coordinate system based on the concentration information.

A drive assisting apparatus includes a running state detection unit which detects a running state of a vehicle, a manipulation detection unit which detects a drive manipulation of a driver on the vehicle, a line-of-sight direction detection unit which detects a line-of-sight direction of the driver, a pattern storage unit which is stored in advance with data indicating combinations of a vehicle running state and a driver drive manipulation and a driver line-of-sight direction pattern, and a warning signal output unit. The warning signal output unit outputs a warning signal if a combination of the running direction detected by the running state detection unit, the drive manipulation detected by the manipulation detection unit, and the line-of-sight direction detected by the line-of-sight direction detection unit is different from any of the combinations of the data stored in the pattern storage unit.